White Labelling for Solicitors
The changing regulatory climate, and downward pressure on fees, makes it ever more important to add to the value you provide to clients.
Offering a trade mark registration service gives you a valuable way to increase your service offering, and develop a closer relationship with your clients. Trade marks also add another source of revenue – especially if you have clients requiring international filings or who develop more products.
Trade marks are increasingly of central importance to business.
To register trade marks you need a range of resources.
Why Outsource the Work
Unless you are registering just a handful of trade marks each year you will need to think through how you will register trade marks.
Trade mark work is often a candidate for outsourcing because it has a significant administrative burden attached to it, and is often process driven.
You need a reliable file management system to keep track of your registrations. This is even more critical if you register trade marks for clients who have a portfolio of brands.
You also need well qualified staff who understands this complex area of the law. Trade marks are commonly believed to involve an exercise in form filling, but in practice they are far from simple, straightforward matters. To secure an effective registration often requires know how and expertise.
Someone with the right level of seniority should ideally be available to oversee the work, and they should have assistance from more junior administrative staff so as to maximize the use of their expert time.
Another important requirement is to have access to research sources, and strong IT support to manage the heavy administrative burdens.
To keep track of registrations, the related trade mark watch services and renewal dates, and deadlines by which actions must be taken, requires a proven, well thought out system.
The complexities of international registration, and the need to maintain relationships and keep records in connection with agents located in different jurisdictions also adds to the administrative work necessary.
The Benefits of Outsourcing in the UK
Although people typically turn to offshore jurisdictions for outsourcing, there is no reason why the same benefits and efficiencies should not be achieved by providers in the UK.
In this country we have a large pool of talented and well qualified graduates seeking to qualify as lawyers. These individuals often need to spend a few years gaining experience before securing training contracts, and provide an exceptionally cost effective resource that competes on all levels with what is on offer by outsourcing providers offshore.
Unless you are a large business with the resources to manage off shore outsourcing, the lack of control inevitably experienced when work is farmed out to foreign jurisdictions is an undesirable by-product of outsourcing. This can be avoided by domestic providers.
Lawyer to Lawyer Outsourcing
An ideal outsourcing solution is to choose a provider who is subject to the same regulatory obligations as yourself. They must be responsive and available at the end of the phone, or for meetings.
That is why Azrights has introduced trade mark registration white labelling services for solicitors.
What next?
If you need legal work please call us on +44 (0)20 7700 1414 or if you prefer send us an enquiry using the form below. Depending on your requirements we may suggest a free meeting. This is often the best way to assess whether we would be the right firm for you, and to understand the work involved, your priorities, attitude to risk, and desired timescales.
